Tommy and Annika: Mr Settigren Has a Party
by Pre-Animation Man
Summary: N/A


Mr. Settigren lived alone in his Aunt Mary's house. His Aunt Mary had gone to live with a friend in another city.

Mr. Settigren was an artist. He was a painter of pictures.

He painted pictures all over the grey fence around his backyard.

He painted pictures for Mrs. Settigren on the patio fences of the twenty-five new houses Mrs. Settigren had built on the block behind Mr. Settigren's. The new houses were called Green Belt Manor.

The people who bought the new houses liked Mr. Settigren's pictures. They said that was the best thing about Green Belt Manor.

Some of the people wanted more than one picture on the patio fence. Some wanted a picture on each side of the patio.

But Mr. Settigren was not working at this any more.

All the people wanted to meet Mr. Settigren, to thank him for his pictures, or to ask him to make more pictures.

"Where is Mr. Settigren?" they asked Mrs. Settigren.

"Mr. Settigren is at home," said Mrs. Settigren. "He finished his work for me. Now he is painting pictures again at his own house."

Some of the men said, "We want to go and see him."

Some of the ladies said, "We want to see him, too."

Mrs. Settigren said, "I will see what I can do. Mr. Settigren is your neighbor. He lives behind the belt of trees."

Mrs. Settigren went over to Mr. Settigren's house. He walked between the orange trees that he had sold to Mr. Settigren. He went through a gate in Mr. Settigren's back fence.

Mr. Settigren was sitting on his back steps, thinking.

He was thinking how many people had come to live in Mrs. Settigren new houses. He thought he would like to meet them. But it would take a long time to visit twenty-five families.

It would be nice, he thought, if the new people could meet the people on his street. Then they would all have so many more friends.

But he could not think of any place where they could meet each other all at once.

"Fathers and mothers and children," he thought. "There are almost a hundred people on this street, and almost a hundred people on the new street."

Then he saw Mrs. Settigren coming and he invited him into the house.

"The owners of the new houses want to meet you," said Mrs. Settigren. "Could they all come over here some Saturday afternoon? Could they come over next Saturday?"

Mr. Settigren gasped. "All at once? Here?" he said.

"Oh, they don't need to come all at once," said Mrs. Settigren. "Why don't you say that you will be 'at home' all afternoon? There will be many people, if the children come."

"I want the children to come," said Mr. Settigren. He scratched his head and thought.

"You have a nice big backyard, with pretty pictures all around it on the fence," said Mrs. Settigren. "It would be a nice place for a party."

"A real party?" gasped Mr. Settigren. "1 would like that, but 1 wouldn't know what to do."

"Why not?" said Mrs. Settigren. "You could set up a table, and have something for the people to eat."

"Maybe Mrs. Abby would come over and fix things for me," said Mr. Settigren. "Mrs. Abby is my housekeeper one day each week."

Annika and Tommy, Mr. Settigren's two neighbors, were looking over their two fences.

"Are you going to have a party?" called Annika.

"Can we come?" asked Tommy.

"Here is some help for you," said Mrs. Settigren. "Annika and Tommy, why don't you two give out the invitations to the party?"

Annika and Tommy came through their two gates into Mr. Settigren's yard. "Do you mean write the invitations?" asked Tommy.

"What will the invitations say?" asked Annika. (She was not very good at spelling.)

Mr. Settigren was getting used to the idea of a party. He was beginning to like it.

He thought again of all the people on his own street.

"We could invite the people on our street, too," he said at last. "Fathers and mothers and children. New friends for everyone."

"Fine, but that will be a lot more people," said Mrs. Settigren.

"I know my mother will want to help," said Annika.

"I know my mother will help, too," said Tommy.

"We could have orangeade and cookies," said Annika. "And games for all the children in my backyard."

"But we'll come over here for orangeade and cookies, won't we?" asked Tommy.

"Of course you will," said Mr. Settigren. "I must see all the children over here."

So Annika and Tommy and Mrs. Settigren sat down and wrote invitations for all the neighbors.

Then Annika and Tommy took invitations to the houses on their street. They went to Mrs. Settigren' new houses and invited all those people, too.

The Settigrens all baked cookies.

The next week, on Saturday, everything was ready. It was a nice sunny day. It was warm.

In Mr. Settigren's backyard there were tables. Mrs. Settigren put plates of cookies on the tables. She put out pitchers full of orangeade too, and paper cups. Tommy put out paper napkins. Annika put out dishes with green mints and white mints.

The people began to come. Mrs. Settigren and I Mr. Settigren met them out in front.

Mr. Settigren looked very nice in his new suit and necktie.

Annika and Tommy took the people to the backyard, The Settigrens poured the orangeade.

After a while, Annika and Tommy took the children to Annika's yard. Annika's mother helped them play games. It was like a birthday party, only the people did not all come at once.

Every little while. Tommy went over to Mr. Settigren's yard. He got the children who had just come to the party. No one really wanted to leave, so there were just more and more people. And there were more and more children for games.

The mothers and fathers were getting to know each other. They talked, and they walked around. They looked at the pictures all over Mr. Settigren's back fence.

About five o'clock, everyone went home. Mrs. Abby began to clean up. Tommy's mother and Annika's mother helped her.

Annika and Tommy carried things to Mr. Settigren's kitchen.

Mr. Settigren was talking to Mrs. Settigren. They heard Mrs. Settigren say, "So now you have enough jobs to last on and on."

"What jobs?" asked Tommy.

"Painting pictures?" asked Annika.

"Yes," said Mrs. Settigren. "The new owners want Mr. Settigren to put more pictures on their patio fences. Some want pictures on all three sides."

"And the other man," said Mr. Settigren.

"What other man?" asked Tommy.

"Mr. Dillon came to the party," said Mr. Settigren, smiling a wide smile. He is a friend of Mrs. Settigren. He is going to build a new village, near here.

"And he wants pictures too?" guessed Tommy.

"Yes," said Mr. Settigren.

"More and more pictures!" said Annika, smiling a wide smile too.

"We will help you decide what to paint," said Tommy.

"Yes, you must," said Mr. Settigren. "I always need ideas."

"It is a very good thing that Tommy and Annika live near you," said Mrs. Settigren.

"Yes," said Mr. Settigren. "And I am glad that Aunt Mary gave me her house to live in. If she had not, I would never have known Annika and Tommy."

"And we would never have known you," said Annika.

"And there would never have been a Settigren's Painted Village," said Tommy. Tommy thought that was a better name than Green Belt Manor.

"Now we all have a great many new friends," said Mr. Settigren. "A party is not so hard to manage after all, when everyone helps!"


End file.
